Father John Freidkes and his son, Braden, have both survived mass shootings.

Braden Freidkes, a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., cowered inside a classroom last week as a twisted teen gunman wielding an AR-15 assault rifle killed 17 people.

Four months earlier, Braden's father, John Freidkes, ran for his life along the Las Vegas strip as Stephen Paddock fired a hail of bullets into a crowd of people enjoying a country music concert. Fifty-eight people died.

"My parents never had to talk to me about situations like this," the elder Freidkes told CNN on Wednesday. "You get up every morning and you're afraid to turn on the news."

Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.

(Mike Stocker/AP)

Freidkes' son was escorted to safety by heavily armed police officers after gunman Nikolas Cruz' senseless attack finally came to an end last Wednesday. Braden recalled "praying" for his "friends and family to be OK" as Cruz methodically walked through the halls, shooting his former teachers and classmates to death.

"I want to be safe wherever I go," Braden said. "I want to go to school to learn, I want to get an education, I want to be safe, and I want to come home to see my parents every day."

Freidkes recalled his own mass shooting experience, on Oct. 1, in Las Vegas.

"There was a crowd of people running towards us yelling 'there's a shooter, there's a shooter,'" he said. "We were lucky enough to jump in a taxi cab where there were two women in there already. One was hyperventilating, the other was seemingly in shock. We asked if they were coming from the venue and they were."

The Vegas massacre, which still remains a mystery, became the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

Freidkes lamented how political leaders are not doing enough to prevent school shootings.

A wounded person is transported in a wheelbarrow as Las Vegas police responded during the Oct. 1 shooting that killed 58 people.

(Chase Stevens/AP)

"It's got to stop. There's got to be a way," Freidkes said. "Our political leaders that we vote for work for us, not for lobbyists, and they need to remember that."

Republicans in Congress, many of whom are backed by the National Rifle Association, have blocked or stalled beefed up gun control efforts from becoming law. Both Cruz and Paddock were able to legally purchase the AR-15 assault rifles that they used to kill innocent people.